DISTRICT 16-3A DIVISION II

What this game means: The Owls win their first outright district championship since 2016 with the victory and finish the regular season at 10-0 and 6-0 in district play. London, meanwhile, misses out on its second district championship in its program’s five-year history and will go into the playoffs with a 7-2 mark and 4-2 record in district.

Friday’s highlights: This was a clash of styles as Odem’s grind-it-out offense was matched by London’s big-play ability. London's Arik Ribble started the scoring with a 55-yard punt return for a touchdown in the first quarter and his big-play ability popped up again later in the game. Meanwhile, Odem’s offense churned out yards and chewed up the clock as two time-consuming drives were key in the game. The Owls drove 72 yards in 14 plays at the end of the first half to tie the game at 14, which ended with a 15-yard TD pass from Matthew Ramirez to Dylan MacDonald. In the fourth quarter, the Owls offense churned out a 71-yard, 12-play drive that ended with a 1-yard run by River Sorrells to give the Owls a 28-21 lead. Three plays later, though, London quarterback Kade Jones hit Ribble for a 57-yard pass to bring the Pirates within one point. London decided to go for two and the pass from Jones to Grant Glasson fell incomplete on the conversion.

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It's the Odem Owls vs. the London Pirates in another Friday night of Texas high school football at Owl Stadium in Odem, TX.(Photo: Courtney Sacco/Caller-Times)

Friday’s stars: Sorrells spearheaded the rushing attack with 214 yards on 35 carries as the team finished with 296 rushing yards. Of the 57 rushes by the Owls only three went for negative yards. Ribble had two of London’s touchdowns, the punt return and the long pass play as he totaled 68 yards receiving on two catches. Glasson finished with four catches for 65 yards and a TD, and Jones was 8 of 16 for 146 yards with two touchdowns and two interceptions.

Odem offensive lineman Matthew Hernandez on the win: “It feels pretty good, honestly. We worked so hard over the season, I feel like we earned it. We came out here and had to do what we do, we put in the work. We came out here, as you see by the score we are a better team, we came out and it all comes back from the spring working.”